Letter: Not so

Re: Perspective Jan. 22 guest commentary, "Any president would have done the same."

President Barack Obama has been congratulated for his actions to kill Osama bin Laden, rightly so.

However, to assert that former President George W. Bush was ever "placed in a similar situation" and failed to act is partisan nonsense. The conditions Obama faced in 2011 in Pakistan were not identical to those the American forces met at Tora Bora in the rugged mountains of Afghanistan 10 years earlier, as the writer certainly knows.

Obama was right to act alone in 2011. He and his advisers had months to prepare the mission. They had the element of surprise.

There is no reasonable evidence that Bush had any similar advantages in 2001, or willfully avoided killing or capturing bin Laden. In the early days of battle following 9/11, all decisions were spur of the moment, based on the best available evidence. And, there was no clearly marked walled compound to attack; only endless caves and crevasses.

Comparing the two events is comparing apples and oranges. The commentary writer, Robert Weiner, is entitled to his opinion but has been a longtime spokesman for Democratic Party causes, which should have been highlighted at the top of the column, not hidden at the bottom.

Romney is correct in his assertion that "any president would have done the same" given the same set of conditions.